


Unexpected

by Catering_fears



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Angst, F/M, Family, Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, only a little tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-06-15
Packaged: 2020-05-12 03:47:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19220938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catering_fears/pseuds/Catering_fears
Summary: After Roy adopts a stray dog, Roy and Riza find themselves the parents of a litter of puppies.





	Unexpected

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this to go along with a silly little comic I drew for Royai Week: https://cateringfears.tumblr.com/post/185600893136/ive-had-this-silly-little-headcanon-that-the  
> Like most things I write, the first half was written when I was half asleep, the other I was fully awake and probably should have known better. I apologize if anyone seems ooc.

Roy’s not really sure how he ended up with a dog in the first place.

All he remembers is going out on a lunch break during the reconstruction in Ishval, the weather had gotten cooler as of late, so having lunch outside sounded like a good idea. He had sat down outside of their makeshift headquarters to enjoy his sandwich when he heard a whimper beside him and he turned to see a filthy looking little white dog begging for food.

He may or may not have given the dog a piece of lunch meat from his sandwich. He may or may not have offered the dog some water from his canteen, which she lapped up greedily. He may or may not have given the dog a few pats before heading back inside as his lunch break came to an end. 

However, what was for certain is that the dog had followed him inside, and he didn’t even notice until he was halfway down the hall. He tried to shoo the mutt away, but to no avail. Roy was going to be late if he spent any more time trying to get the dog off his trail, so he let it be.

When he arrived in the office, his team members (excluding a certain red-headed cynophobe) began cooing over the dog. He insisted that none of them get too attached, she could have an owner after all. Unfortunately, the good General was not very good at taking his own advice.

Somewhere during the process of taking her back to their living quarters, giving her a bath, feeding her part of their dinner, and asking around to see if she belonged to anyone, Roy became fond of the pup. He decided to call her Suisei, and she so easily fit into his life, like she had always been there. In that regard, she reminded him of a sharpshooter he knew. In fact, Suisei and Riza had quite a bit in common, and when Roy teasingly mentioned this to his adjutant, she cooly shot back with her own comparisons to the General and her dog, Black Hayate. Roy never mentioned their similarities again.

Suisei came with him when he and his team moved back to Central as the reconstruction project came to a close. He had to admit, it was nice to have a little companion, someone who was always excited to see him when he came home. She was not quite as well-trained as Hayate (Roy insisted that this was her previous owner’s fault, not his own), so he rarely ever brought her to work. However, Suisei and Hayate got along quite well, so playdates between the two were common and definitely not an excuse for the owners of said dogs to spend more time together. It would seem, though, that Suisei and Hayate got along a little too well.

“Suisei has been acting strange lately,” Roy remarked one day as the Captain set a new stack of paperwork on his desk, “could you make a vet appointment for her, Captain?”

“Of course, Sir,” Riza nodded, “Hayate has been needing a check-up anyways, so I’ll come with you.”

Later that week the two military officers brought their dogs to a local vet where Roy received the last news he had expected to hear.

“It would seem that your dog is expecting puppies.”

To say Roy was shocked would be an understatement. At first he was confused, not having any inkling of how this could have happened. Suisei wasn’t around other dogs much, the only dog she interacted with was— and then it clicked. Black Hayate was the only dog Suisei was ever seen with. They had frequent playdates and they got along very well. There was really only one conclusion.

Captain Riza Hawkeye’s dog had knocked up Brigadier General Roy Mustang’s dog.

He must have looked quite stricken when he left the vet’s office, because worry was laced through Riza’s voice as she asked him what was wrong.

“Captain,” Roy whispered to her in a serious tone, “I’m going to be a father.”

It wasn’t long before the rest of the team caught wind of the news, and though neither superior had disclosed the father of Suisei’s litter, it certainly hadn’t been hard for them to come to the same conclusion.

“Geez, General, I knew you were fond of the Captain, but I didn’t think you’d take it this far,” Havoc joked.

“It was her dog,” Roy retorted haughtily.

“Blaming the woman now, are you? I thought you considered yourself a gentleman.”

Havoc and Breda continued to make jokes for the next hour or so. Statements like “when’s it due?” and “I hope the Hawkeye’s plan on paying child support” were thrown around. It wasn’t until Roy threatened to write them up for insubordination did they finally stop.

“If my housing allowed pets, I’d be happy to take one off your hands,” Furey had sighed when the topic of what would happen to the puppies came up a month later. As much as Roy liked dogs, he certainly didn’t want to keep all of them, and Riza planned on taking at least one.

“You could ask the Elric’s if they’d like one. I think I remember Winry mentioning they’ve been looking for a new dog since Den passed away.”

Riza’s suggestion was perfectly sensible, but Roy was admittedly reluctant to call up the former State Alchemist because he knew exactly what the little brat was gonna say.

“You mean to tell me the Captain’s dog got yours pregnant?” Edward would say over the phone when Roy called him later that day. “You know, I always thought you and the Captain would have kids one day, but this isn’t what I had imagined.”

“Shut your mouth, Elric,” Roy snapped, “are you going to take one of the puppies or not?”

“Yeah, sure, but I hope you don’t mind making a delivery. Winry’s not exactly in the condition to travel and I gotta help her watch our pups.”

After his phone call with Edward, Roy rang up the Captain to let her know that they had one less puppy to worry about.

“Good, I knew they would want to take one.”

“Yeah, I figured they would,” Roy murmured, “oh, and Captain?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Get your dog neutered. That’s an order.”

 

Months later the General and his Captain would find themselves on a train to Resembool with a basket of puppies. Suisei ended up having three, two girls and one boy. Just a few weeks ago they had been successfully weaned and were ready to go off to new homes. Riza was going to take the boy- who looked just about identical to his mother save for his eye color- and the Elric’s were going to take the two girls- who both took after their father. They only planned to stay in Resembool for a short while, just long enough to hand over the puppies, visit for a bit, and then leave on the next train out. The train ride was mostly quiet, save for some casual conversation between superior and subordinate and the occasional whine from the sleeping puppies. It would be a very stark contrast to the chaos that was the Elric household.

The Elric’s had two children, a 3 year old boy named Luke and a nearly one year old girl named Nina. Winry was expecting another, any day now according to Edward, and was confined to bed rest, which no doubt drove both parents crazy. Winry because she hated staying in one place, and Edward because he now had to shoulder most of the responsibility of taking care of two young toddlers. So it really should have been no surprise when the door practically burst open the moment the Captain rang the doorbell and two small children began swarming at their feet.

Both Roy and Riza had the pleasure of meeting both the Elric children when Nina was born (unfortunately the reconstruction in Ishval has kept them from being there during Luke’s birth), but neither had much interaction with them since then. They had seen pictures, Winry made sure to send plenty, but it was still quite a shock to see how much both the children had grown. Despite the pictures, Roy still imagined Nina as a newborn and Luke as a barely articulate two year old any time they came up in conversation. So to hear Luke shouting “puppies! puppies!” at the top of his lungs and to see Nina trailing behind her brother on foot was honestly quite a shock.

Edward managed to round up his kids and invited Roy and Riza inside. The puppies jumped out of the basket as soon as Roy placed it on the floor, eager and full of energy after their long nap on the train ride. It wasn’t long before the Elric house was full of delighted shrieks and yips from children and puppies, respectively. Winry was sitting on a couch in the living room, tinkering with something mechanical, and got up only to offer hugs to both Riza and Roy before settling back down with a slight grimace. Ed sat beside his wife while the two military officers took their spots on the couch opposite to the couple.

“Are you sure you can handle two puppies on top of all of this?” Riza asked, eyes darting between the slightly bedraggled Ed and the heavily pregnant Winry.

“Don’t worry about it,” Ed said, waving away the Captain’s concern, “Al and Mei are coming back from Xing later today to help out around here until the baby arrives.”

“When are you due?” Roy asked.

“Next week,” Winry’s hand went to her stomach, “I can’t wait to get this baby out of here.”

The adults continued to converse while the children and puppies played. After a time, Nina came toddling over, reaching out to and calling for her mother.

“I’m sorry, sweetie, by mama can’t hold you right now,” Winry said, no doubt because the baby was a little too heavy for the expecting woman.

Ed swooped in as a suitable replacement, bouncing the baby on his knee for a moment before holding her out to the Captain, “you wanna hold her?”

“You’re not gonna offer her to me, too?” Roy asked before Riza could reply.

“Nina doesn’t like you, remember?” Ed scoffed, referring to how Nina had immediately burst into tears the first time Roy held her.

Roy let out an indignant retort as Riza accepted the young child, placing her on her knee as Ed had. The General and the former State Alchemist went at it like old times, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Riza talking to and cooing at the baby. Eventually the argument died down, and Roy only half paid attention to the conversation that was now taking place as he watched Riza. A strange feeling entered his heart, one he’d felt the first time he saw Riza hold Nina. It was bittersweet mix of guilt and love, as the sight both ate away at him and warmed his heart. 

Roy had known Riza since she was young, and while he apprenticed under her father she had always expressed a desire to have a family of her own. One that was better than the one she had with her negligent father in a big, lonely house. After Ishval, Roy never heard her express such a desire or one like it ever since, he knew exactly why and he couldn’t help feeling somewhat responsible for it. Riza has come to Ishval because of him, and Roy often found himself wishing he hadn’t told Riza his dream or had done something to prevent her from following him to what had been a hell on earth. Maybe now the baby in her lap would’ve been her own and she would’ve had that happy family she’d wanted as a girl. That thought plagued him through the rest of their visit and after saying their goodbyes to the Elric’s, Ed stopped him at the door.

“Everything alright between you and the Captain?” he whispered, eyes flitting to the woman in question, who stood just out of earshot with the last of Suisei’s puppies in her arms.

“Of course it is, why wouldn’t it be?” Roy knew he sounded defensive, but he didn’t care.

Ed glared at him, “I don’t know, you were just... looking at her weird after she started holding Nina. What’s that about?”

Roy frowned and turned away to descend down the front steps, “that’s none of you business, Fullmetal.”

He couldn’t see his face, but he could tell by his tone that Ed was seething. He hated it when Roy called him by his former title, almost as much as he hated being called short. “Well sorry for being worried about you, General Bastard. I’ll know better next time.”

Roy turned back to Ed with a smile once he reached the last step. “Take care, Elric. Oh, and tell Al and Mei we said hi.”

Ed’s anger gave way to fondness as he returned Roy’s smile, “yeah, sure thing.”

Some things never changed.

 

“We’re gonna have to visit after the baby is born,” Riza remarked once they’d settled in their train care, the last of Suisei’s puppies snoozing in her lap.

“Yeah,” Roy muttered halfheartedly, lost in thought.

“Is something the matter, sir?” his Captain asked after a beat.

“Those Elric’s seem to have their hands full. What with two kids, a kid on the way, and now two puppies. I almost feel bad dumping those little brats on them.”

“Yes, sir, but they did say that’s what they wanted.”

“Yeah, I suppose so, but still seems like a lot.”

“They can handle it, sir.”

Roy only hummed in response, resting his elbow on the window and his cheek on his hand. “Must be nice, though, to have a family like that. You ever think about family, Captain?”

His Captain went quiet and he risked a glance at her to find her staring at him. Her face was perfectly neutral, but he could see a mix of emotions in her gaze.

“Is that what you’ve been thinking about, sir?” Riza asked quietly and he could tell by her look that she knew exactly what he’d been thinking. They’d had a conversation similar to this one before. Roy sighed.

“Yeah... sorry, I couldn’t help it. Seeing you hold Nina...”

“You shouldn’t think like that, sir, there are much more important things you should have on your mind.”

“What’s more important than you?”

Now it was Riza’s turn to sigh. “I think you already know the answer to that question.”

“Did I cause you to give up your dreams, Captain?” he asked suddenly.

She regarded him with a look of surprise before frowning, “I made my own choices, sir, besides I’m busy helping you with yours.”

“But what about yours?”

Her eyes drifted to the sleeping form on her lap, “times have changed.”

Roy reached out and squeezed her hand, “it can still happen, you know.”

Riza shook her head, but she smiled gently, “it already has.” Roy tilted his head questioningly, but he let her continue. “Maybe it didn’t happen the way I thought it would, but I do have a family. The people we’ve met over the years have become my family and I couldn’t be more grateful to have them.”

Roy smiled softly, he wanted to hug her, but he settled for giving her hand another squeeze before turning to look out the window.

They settled into a comfortable silence, after about an hour or so, Roy piped up again. 

“So, you’re gonna be taking him?” he gestured to the puppy in Riza’s lap and she nodded, “got any names in mind? Please tell me it’s something better than Black Hayate.”

Riza chuckled, “I’ve got a few, yes. I think my favorite right now is Frank.”

Roy grimaced, causing Riza to smirk, “you have no naming sense,” he murmured with a shake of his head.

Yeah, some things never changed.

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone who’s curious:  
> Following the naming conventions of FMA’s military characters, Suisei was named after the Yokosuka D4Y Suisei, a Japanese Navy carrier dive bomber (Suisei is also Japanese for “comet”). Frank was the allied code name for the Nakajima Ki-84 Hayate, the Japanese fighter plane Black Hayate was named after.


End file.
